president obama is cuts his short and set to leave hawaii tonight to head back to d.c. he will avoid one pr nightmare being on vacation while the precious moments tick away. he faces another as being a president who let the country go off the cliff. if you think that's a bad thing. the senate is back in action and the house has yet to receive a 48 hour heads up to return. john boehner said he refuses to call him back if there is no deal to vote on. he has given up hope and opting to work with senate democrats to push their bill from this past summer that extends rates on those less than $250,000. he failed to get his party behind a threshold and what are the odds this bill will pass. let's get the latest read on those not going on on capitol hill. luke, what is the latest? >> the latest is that there is aides i spoke to that think there is a 50-50 chance that the senate could get a small scale agreement on the floor the next few days and possibly be passed. that gets more and more unlikely as time goes by. harry reid is gauging interest with republican and democratic se